The historic 45ft ketch Aigh Vie, built in the Isle of Man in 1916 as an anonymous gift for a fishing skipper who had saved many lives after the sinking of the Transatlantic liner Lusitania in May 1915, is now…

Heading into the third night of the 1805-mile RORC Sevenstar Round Britain & Ireland Race, Ireland’s Atlantic seaboard is starting to provide the kind of speed sailing in which the pace-setters in Class 40 excel writes W M Nixon. With…

#Coastal Rowing: The inaugural Irish Coastal Rowing Championships will take place this Saturday and Sunday, August 18th and 19th at the National Rowing Centre in Farran Wood, Cork. Clubs from all four provinces are set to compete. Eddie Farr, chair…

The recent €1.5m into High-Performance sport has been given a broad welcome, but both sailing and rowing got a share well below their medal-winning performances in Rio. It means these sports will most likely view the announcement as the proverbial…

#Detention - A Maltese-flagged cruiseship still remains under detention in Dublin Port having arrived in the capital almost three weeks ago, writes Jehan Ashmore. Authorities, Paris MoU, the official body responsible for eliminating the operation of sub-standard ships (see list) detained…

#RNLI - Clifden RNLI’s D class lifeboat Celia Mary was on exercise at Glassilaun Beach for the annual sports day on Sunday (12 August) when it was alerted to a group of people cut off by the tide. The inshore lifeboat…

#RNLI - Last Wednesday evening (8 August), two men enjoying an evening’s fishing on their speedboat near Groomsport in Co Down hit rocks and lost their propeller. Bangor RNLI were quickly called to the scene for what was described as “a…

Tomorrow, Wednesday, 15 August, marks Gregor McGuckin’s 32nd birthday. The solo sailor is now 44 days into what could be a 270 day non-stop voyage around the globe onboard his 36ft yacht Hanley Energy Endurance. McGuckin is currently making his…

#Shipyards - An Irish Sea based shipbuilder on Merseyside, Cammell Laird in Birkenhead has unveiled a new website for a cutting-edge warship, the 'Leander' Frigate, in a bid to capitalise on growing interest from navies around the world. The BAE…

#RNLI - A family of five were rescued by Skerries RNLI in the early hours of this morning (Tuesday 14 August) after their yacht ran aground at the North Co Dublin town’s harbour. As RTÉ News reports, the family, who are…

After the second night at sea in the RORC Sevenstar Round Britain & Ireland Race, the fleet find themselves still slugging to windward in the area west and northwest of the Isles of Scilly writes W M Nixon. They’re in…

#CoastalNotes - Eugene Garrihy a Clare businessman writes The Irish Examiner has criticised the results of a new survey that has labelled Doolin a “litter blackspot." Mr Garrihy, father of Dancing with the Stars celeb and Fair City actor Aoibheann…

#ICRA - All three boats on the podium at Cork Week last month demonstrate the benefits of not only rig tuning but also focused coaching, according to Mark Mansfield. The UK Sailmakers racing consultant and four-time Olympian, who shared a…

Robert Louis Stevenson, the Scottish novelist who wrote ‘Treasure Island,’ didn’t have much regard for politicians. “Politics,” he wrote in ‘Familiar Studies of Men and Books,’ a collection of his articles and essays is “perhaps the only profession for which…

#StoneAndPots - Dutch divers are bringing their campaign against ‘ghost fishing’ to Galway Bay next month, as the Irish Examiner reports. Previously covered on Afloat.ie earlier this year, the Ghost Fishing Foundation co-ordinates cleanups of lost or abandoned fishing gear…

#MarineScience - A UCC-led group of scientists from across the globe have revealed a submarine canyon on the edge of Ireland’s continental shelf, 320km west of Dingle, after mapping an area twice the size of Malta. The group returned last…

The majority of Britons would buy a boat if they were to win the lottery. That’s according to a major study carried out by TheYachtMarket.com Southampton Boat Show, which revealed that almost two-thirds (63%) would choose a boat as their…

#Superyachts - Afloat.ie has learned that superyacht Christopher is moored in Dun Laoghaire Marina this morning (Monday 13 August) after passage from Belfast. The 46m Ron Holland-designed cruising ketch previously sailed into Dublin Bay in June 2014, when it was…

American Augie Diaz and Brazilian Bruno Prada are the winner of the Robbe & Berking Star European Championships 2018, tied to Lars Grael with Samuel Gonçalves (BRA) who are second. The Bronze medal goes to Cork brothers Peter and Robert O’Leary…